29/04/2008

Belgium, a small country with a strong film industry, is set to make its mark at Cannes with three films selected in the 47th edition of the International Critics’ Week.

Having last seen Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon and Bruno Romy in their film Iceberg [+see also:
trailer
film profile], they now make a dancing comeback in Rumba [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Charles Gillibert
interview: Dominique Abel and Fiona Go…
film profile]. Piloted by their own production company (Courage mon amour), with backing from MK2 (France), the title finds the trio back in their poetic and quirky world, peopled by one-legged, amnesiac, moustache-sporting characters.

Critics’ Week will also offer audiences the chance to discover the eagerly-awaited second feature by Swiss director Ursula Meïer, who has already won numerous awards for her film shorts. Produced by Need Productions, and co-produced by Box Productions (Switzerland) and French company Archipel 35 (who also co-produced The Silence of Lorna [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Arta Dobroshi
interview: Arta Dobroshi
interview: Jean-Pierre et Luc Dardenne
interview: Olivier Bronckart
film profile] by the Dardenne brothers), Home [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kacey Mottet Klein
interview: Thierry Spicher
interview: Ursula Meier
film profile] recounts the inescapable disintegration of a family trapped by the motorway built at the bottom of their garden.

Here, Isabelle Huppert once again lends her talents to young Belgian cinema, after starring in Joachim Lafosse’s Private Property [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] last year.

On the Dutch-speaking side, Flemish film will be represented by Christophe van Rompaey’s Moscow, Belgium [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which was released domestically in January and received an enthusiastic response from audiences in Flanders. Produced by A Private View, this is the first Flemish film to be selected in the Critics’ Week since Frank Van Passel’s Manneken Pis.

The Un Certain Regard section will screen minority Belgian co-production Salt of This Sea [+see also:
trailer
film profile], by Annemarie Jacir, produced by JBA Production (France), and co-produced by Thelma Films (Switzerland), and Tarantula Belgique.

As for shorts, Et dans mon cœur j’emporterai by Sung-A Yoon (INSAS) will screen in the Cinéfondation section and Harragas by Grégory Lecocq (Ultime Razzia) will be presented in the Critics’ Week.

(Translated from French)